End of a Journey
by xTimorousBeastie
Summary: She was just a face, dressed down with heavy mascara both lengthening and weighing down her eyelashes. She had come to accept this about herself. And then she met the Doctor and from the moment he first took her hand in his and uttered one word, just one word- run- she knew that finally she outgrew the world around her. And that she never wanted to let go of his hand.


Rose had never believed that she was anything special. She was just a shop girl from the Powell Estates with a cockney accent, bleached blonde hair, a dead dad, an overprotective mum and a boyfriend who had known her since she was in diapers and had probably loved her for just as long. Nothing special, nothing extraordinary about her, nothing to make her stand out just a little from the crowd. She was just a face, dressed down with heavy mascara both lengthening and weighing down her eyelashes. She had come to accept this about herself, no matter how many times she had come to wish of a different life alone in her bedroom where no one could see, no one could judge.

And then she met the Doctor and from the moment he first took her hand in his and uttered one word, just one word- run- she knew that finally she outgrew the world around her. And that she never wanted to let go of his hand.

They bent time and space to fit their whim together, exploring and running and putting their lives at risk while saving others and all they while they held hands and smiled like they had the entire universe as a playground. And they did.

Then he let her go, sent her spiraling back through time so he could die and she could be safe but Rose could hardly allow that to happen so she took a risk. She opened the TARDIS , looked into its heart and piloted the blue policebox that was bigger on the inside than the outside but didn't have a working telephone and was probably alive if it's ability to act like a PMSing woman if you ever happened to do something wrong or offensive or horribly unfunny within her confines were any indication all the way back to the future.

It was Rose who killed the threats.

It was Rose who brought Jack back to Life.

But it was the Doctor who saved Rose and it was Rose who killed the Doctor.

A kiss upon the lps with only a cheesy line to keep it from being like a fairytale because they were never meant for fairytales and he drew out the Time Vortex from her mind, relieved the pain that came with seeing all of time at once, kept her from burning like the sun and then changed in front of her very eyes to a form that seemed perfectly tailored to suit her preferences.

Tall, slim, great hair and pretty.

But she wanted none of it. She wanted her Doctor with his big ears, buzz cut and leather jackets over different colored jumpers and she told him as such.

It didn't take Rose Tyler long to fall in love with this version as well, and they continued their travels hand in hand, running to danger instead of away from it in a manner only the Doctor, in the TARDIS, with Rose Tyler could. Gracefully, Meaningfully, and perhaps a bit forcefully and rudely on his part but he was hers and she was his even if they never said as such in so many words.

She was going to be with him forever. Rose had made up her mind and she was never going to leave him, never drop his hand for even a moment because she knew how lonely he was capable of being, had seen it first hand when they had first met and didn't want this amazing man to revert back to bearing the weight of the entire universe on his shoulders.

So how then, did she end up here, on Darlig ulv Stranden, Bad Wolf Bay of all things, stuck in an alternate dimension pouring her heart out to the only man who had ever held it so securely? Who- at this moment- wasn't even a man, but an image sent to her? He was burning up a sun to say goodbye and all she could do was cry her eyes out as she shouted her feelings for the first time, wanting nothing more than to take his hand once more.

"I love you!" It was such a relief to get it off her chest, a sentiment that had been rolling around her head and her heart for two years of traveling and another trapped here even though it had only been a few minutes since they had truly been together for him. Time traveled differently here it seemed.

His response had her smiling through her tears because the way she felt had hardly been a secret from either of them despite the fact that they had never been said with words. They had been spoke with every hand hold, every smile, every teasing word and honest word and every time her arms wrapped around his frame just as his were.

But this was their last chance, never again would Rose Tyler be able to meet with her Doctor and he started to speak those words she so desperately needed to hear, but before he could, he disappeared. Their two minutes were up, the sun was burned out and Rose Tyler was left alone on a chilly beach, his words still hanging around on the air that swirled around her, chilling her tears to her reddened cheeks.

Despite the family who stood back to give her privacy, she had never felt so alone.


End file.
